Hillsdale Academy and college staff dedicated a new wing of the K-12 school, with students performing recitations and choral music Oct. 2.

The new wing includes an atrium, a music room, two classrooms dedicated to the teaching of Latin, and classrooms for grades five through eight, said Hillsdale Academy Headmaster Mike Roberts during his welcome speech.

“Since 2020, our enrollment has increased by 50%,” Roberts said. “This increase simply caused us to outgrow our current space and was putting limits, especially on high school enrollment, and the ability to serve local families.”

Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn said the school is doing well. 

“It’s bigger, and this is possible because of the love and knowledge and devotion of the people who work at it — and those students whose discipline and knowledge is manifest,” Arnn said.

Assistant Professor of Education David Diener previously served as the Academy headmaster from 2018 to 2022. Diener said when the Academy opened in 1990, it started with combined classrooms called “clusters” where, for example, there was one classroom for both third and fourth grade students. 

“During my years as headmaster, enrollment grew, and we finished breaking apart those clusters so that each grade level had its own classroom,” Diener said. “As the enrollment has continued to grow, the Academy is now in a place to have multiple sections of some grades in the upper school.”

Additional classrooms have been sorely needed in order to accommodate the increased number of students and classes, Diener said.

“This new wing is a testament to the incredible education that Hillsdale Academy provides and to Hillsdale College’s commitment to K-12 classical education,” Diener said. “As the Academy continues to grow, the expanded facilities will enable the education we provide to bless not only families here in Hillsdale but school communities all over the country who look to Hillsdale Academy as a model to emulate.”

During her remarks at the dedication, Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 education at Hillsdale College, said she thought the dedication ceremony called attention to the importance of good architecture. 

“When you step into a building or a room that has been designed well, you feel different,” O’Toole said. “These things invite us in, and they encourage us to carry ourselves in a certain way, to regard others in a certain way, and to think of our own activity in that place in a certain way.”

Professor of History Ken Calvert, who served as the Academy headmaster for 16 years, said he thinks the new wing is beautiful.

“The students and staff of the school are blessed,” Calvert said. “This is an important addition to Hillsdale Academy as it plays a role in the efforts of Hillsdale College to spread classical K-12 education in America.”